FC Twente’s general director looks ahead to crucial duel in Eindhoven: “After all, we are visiting the national champions.”

Next Sunday PSV will play at home the final league match of the 2025/2026 season against number 3 FC Twente. For the Tukkers, a ticket for the Champions League preliminary round is on the line in this match, while PSV has long since been settled with the league title in hand.

In Enschede, anticipation is building for this match. A victory for John van den Brom's team at the Philips Stadium is enough to ensure a place in next season in the qualifying round of the billion-dollar tournament, while with a different result, attention must also be paid to what rivals NEC and Ajax do.

Therefore, one realizes in Enschede that FC Twente still has nothing to show despite the fact that the Tukkers are doing excellently. ''As a result of the defeats of our closest competitors NEC and Ajax, for the first time this season we found ourselves in third place in the standings, a position that grants access to the preliminary round of the UEFA Champions League'', writes managing director Dominique Scholten in the latest FC Twente newsletter ahead of the crucial clash with PSV.

Last Sunday, FC Twente convincingly beat Sparta Rotterdam at home (4-0) and thereby took over third place from NEC, which in turn suffered a defeat at FC Groningen (2-1). Ajax also lost at home to FC Utrecht (1-2).

A point for FC Twente next Sunday means anyway that Ajax can forget about participating in the Champions League qualifying round, but the team from Enschede must also take into account NEC’s result in their own Goffert against Go Ahead Eagles.

That is why Scholten also thinks it will be a tough task for his club to secure Sunday’s Champions League preliminary round. Of course, the squad will do everything on Sunday afternoon to hold on to this position. To rule out all possible scenarios for places three, four and five, a win is necessary. That is easier said than done. After all, we will be visiting the national champions. We will do everything we can; in any case, it will be exciting'', as the general manager of the Tukkers writes.